The Gary Sanitary District isn’t renewing its trash pickup contract with Republic Services and is purchasing garbage trucks to launch its own pickup service next year.

Gary has been outsourcing trash pickup since 2008 when former Mayor Rudy Clay ended the city’s own service because it became too costly and the city couldn’t up with preventative maintenance.

High costs are now the reason cited by GSD director Ragen Hatcher for the return to city-owned trucks and city manpower.

She said the sanitary district did a cost study and determined it could save money by returning to its own collection service in conjunction with the city’s General Services department.

“We’ll save significantly,” Hatcher said.

She said Republic’s cost is $30 per house, per month. Gary has about 22,000 households receiving trash service, according to an estimate.

The GSD board retained Republic Services in 2015 under a five-year $4.2 million contract that was renewed in 2020.

She said Monday the sanitary district has purchased six garbage trucks and plans to buy four more. Four of the trucks are the one-armed version that just require a driver and six will be traditional trucks with a driver and worker.

Hatcher said she was on the city council when former Mayor Clay halted city garbage pickup because of low staffing and maintenance problems.

Meanwhile, Hatcher said residents can continue to do curbside recycling after it announced plans to halt the program last month, saying just 2,400 households participated.

Republic Services also picked up the recyclables and Hatcher said higher costs and low participation triggered the move to stop service.

The city faced pushback from residents at community meetings. Citizens complained about the short notice and transportation issues to get to the city’s four designated recycling drop-off sites.

Hatcher said Rachel Morgan Ceaser, director of the mayor’s office of constituent services, determined city workers could handle the curbside recycling pickups.

The GSD had designated four drop-off sites when it canceled the recycling program, but Hatcher said that move has been paused.

Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.